Monday, June 7, 2010

Vienna: waaay more than sausage in a can.

The day after Salzburg, we packed into the bus again to make the drive to Vienna. We were there for only one day, which is laughably short compared to the amount of time needed to appreciate that grand city.

Just outside of Vienna we took a short break at the Hapsburg summer palace. Sounds quaint, right? Yeah, it’s about as big as the Atlanta airport. The next time you listen to a rapper sing about all the money he has and the big chrome wheels on the Chevy think about the fact that the Hapsburgs’ part time palace would take up an entire zip code.

We pulled ourselves away from the beautiful dynastic summer hangout, and rolled into the city. We were on our way to visit the Austrian Supreme court. It’s one of those buildings that leaves your jaw on the ground when you walk into it. There is a central atrium with a grand staircase and an enormous statue of Justitia the Roman goddess of justice assuring fairness with her giant sword.

After our presentation by a Supreme Court justice, we went over to the International Arbitration center for a lecture by the Secretary General. We are well connected over here.

We took a small tour of the big city afterwards courtesy of Professor Lanier. We walked up to the Hofburg Palace- yes, another palace- and admired the view. Do you know the true meaning of the word “awesome?”

I do.

Later when it started raining pretty hard I retreated to a café to work on some LR stuff. The rest of the group went off to sightsee and take in Vienna. I was a little sad that I could not do the same, but I had been to Vienna before, and sipping coffee in a Viennese café still beats sipping folgers at home.